The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System has received a five-year federal agreement worth approximately $20.7 million to develop mRNA vaccine technologies targeting respiratory pathogens. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Defense through the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), with support provided through its Joint Science and Technology Office (JSTO) and the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium.1
The project, known as Vaccine Immunoengineering for Targeted Antigen Presentation and Layered Control (VITAL), will initially focus on an experimental nasal vaccine against highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1). Researchers plan to investigate whether the approach can be adapted to target at least 20 respiratory viruses. VITAL will investigate an unmodified messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine administered through the nose.
Messenger RNA provides cells with instructions for making proteins. For example, the mRNA COVID-19 biological manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna programs cells to make synthetic spike protein and the mRNA encoding the SARS-CpV-2 spike protein is delivered into the body coated in lipid nanoparticles to provoke a strong inflammatory response. To develop mRNA nasal vaccines for other respiratory diseases, researchers aim to primarily target macrophages, which as immune cells that help defend the body against infection. The project will examine how this targeted delivery approach affects immune responses and whether it can address safety concerns that have been associated with mRNA biological product development.2
The research will examine five vaccine-design principles: targeting specific immune cells, providing appropriate immune stimulation, modifying antigens to reduce potential toxicity, delivering vaccines through routes relevant to how pathogens enter the body, and adjusting the timing of doses to reproduce aspects of natural infection. Researchers will investigate how these approaches influence immune responses and whether they can be applied to different respiratory pathogens.3 4
Evaluating Immune Responses
Researchers will use animal models and human immune tissue systems to study the experimental mRNA vaccine. They will examine how different immune cells interact, including macrophages and dendritic cells, which help coordinate immune responses, and B cells and T cells, which play roles in recognizing and responding to threats.5
The team will also use laboratory techniques to examine individual cells, study how cells are arranged within tissues, analyze proteins, and process biological data using computational methods. These studies are designed to assess the product’s safety and immune activity before development.6
Funding and Research Goals
The project falls under the Reimagining Available Vaccines and Envisioning Novelty (RAVEN) program, which supports research into developing novel vaccine technologies to respond to threats by pathogens that could harm human health. Researchers intend to investigate whether the mRNA platform can be extended beyond H5N1 to other respiratory viruses. The agreement runs through Aug. 28, 2031, and includes preclinical research and regulatory planning for possible future clinical development.7
If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.
Click here to view References:1 Respiratory Therapy. Federal Grant to Fund Inhaled Vaccines. Oct. 13, 2026.
2 Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai Awarded Five-Year, $20.7 Million Vaccine Development Agreement to Advance Next-Generation Technologies Against Respiratory Threats. Oct. 13, 2026.
3
4
5
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
9 Responses
Stop the use of MRNA period. This should never be allowed they lied about the MRNA covid vaccine….enough is enough!
Totally agree. We have to eliminate all vaccines for all diseases in every country. Vaccines have been of no benefit to humanity.
Considering the horrors of the mRNA casualities during and after the vax years, how in the hell would this inhale-a-vax be any better?
CALL FOR THE DEVIL BUSTERS! Satan is living in WDC. (As if you/I didn’t know.)
an unmodified messenger ribonucleic acid / Ask yourself, where do you keep this certain ingredient in your kitchen? If you had this substance in your home, would you keep it in your kitchen or put it in your food?
providing appropriate immune stimulation / Define; ‘appropriate’. You know what else is also ‘appropriately stimulative of the immune system? Vitamin C, D, B, A, iodine, CoQ10, dandelion, tumeric, fish oil, ten thousand other different herbal and homeopathic remedies, tinctures, and solutions. Nahhh, I want chemicals in novel aerosol delivery instead. That’s what I really really want.
When was the last time you had an honest conversation with yourself and sincerely said; I need more lipid nanoparticles in my life. My life and my health, are simply incomplete and deficient without lipid nanoparticles. Gotta have it. I don’t care what it costs or what the risks are. Nano particles are cool and I have to have them right now.
timing of doses to reproduce aspects of natural infection / Or people could simply wait for natural exposure, allow the bodies natural immune management systems to take care of the product on their own. Stop staring at the clock all day, it’s not healthy.
The RAVEN program. Threats that can harm human health. You mean, like, vaccines, chemicals, substrates, adjuvants, rouge proteins? Like that kine of harm? I’ve reached deep, contemplated, considered, discerned, racked my brain. I simply can not think of a better thing to spend twenty million dollars of taxpayer money on. The men and women in white lab coats need that money far more than the homeless people living by the grocery store. Who cares about them anyways. They’re probably filthy unvaccinated people anyways. Animals.
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!
Great! MORE ways to commit genocide against the human race! What a WONDERFUL idea! With the BEST of intentions! What could POSSIBLY go wrong?!
It’s way past time to use the Constitution and apply the prohibition against treason along with the proscribed method.
DOGE should defend DOD.
.I thought DOD is gone?
Only DOW.
Government canot be trusted, Goverment spends money on killing people.
DOGE should defund DOD.
Meanwhile, “An in vitro study conducted jointly by researchers at Northwestern University and Utah State University found that a single blast of the over-the-counter sinus spray XLEAR made with grapefruit seed extract and Xylitol could reduce and nearly eliminate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In a press release the study authors said it breaks new ground because they found the spray could also help stave off H1N1 (a subtype of influenza A, example the swine flu of 2009) and emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.”
By why use an effective OTC nasal spray when you can waste millions of taxpayer $ to study a harmful mRNA treatment.
https://www.biospace.com/article/more-data-suggests-over-the-counter-nasal-spray-is-effective-against-covid-19-virus/
Air born MRNA ?
What is the worse that can happen?
What could possibly go wrong?